


Reciprocity

by Starshaker



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, Alternate Universe - Thieves, Costume Parties & Masquerades, Escape, Force Visions, Gen, Peace, The Force
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-11
Updated: 2018-02-11
Packaged: 2019-03-16 22:38:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,780
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13645872
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Starshaker/pseuds/Starshaker
Summary: Ben and his family are attending a masquerade ball in celebration of the Peace treaty that will unite forces across the galaxy.  Ben is bored and looking for an escape from his mother's political circles.





	Reciprocity

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ImperialRemnant](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ImperialRemnant/gifts).



“Ben!” His mother hissed as he lifted a drink from a passing waiter’s tray with a flick of his hand and levitated it over with the Force.

“I’m practicing my control,” He said and tipped his glass in her direction before he took a sip, “And I’ve got to dull my senses somehow. Half the people in this room still want to poison you,” She levelled him with a look and he raised an eyebrow, though behind his mask she likely only presumed what expression he was making.

“Thank you Ben,” She said flatly. He kept his eyes on the other guests rather than his own mother. All dress in their pricey fitted robes and showing off their cultures through extravagant fashion statements that put every exhibit in the museum that hosted them at risk. 

“Why don’t you join the tour of the exhibits?” His mother suggested and her hand on his elbow turned him in the direction to do so.

“So they can make up another dozen inaccuracies about our family history,” He scoffed and downed the remainder of his drink before setting the empty glass on a ledge of a nearby column. 

Ben had witnessed enough of this farcical peace treaty celebration within five minutes of arriving and yet an hour later he was still required to endure small talk at his mother’s side. The concept of a masquerade ball seemed lost on most of these attendees. Masks that were little more than a thin ribbon above and below their eyes. Still he supposed it helped them seek out each other to continue their off the record business deals. Ben had insisted that if he had to attend his whole face would be obscured. 

“Go on the tour,” His mother urged him again, “Spend the next thirty minutes correcting everything they say. I’m going to find your father before he starts making deals he can’t keep,”

“You’ll be too late for that.” 

 

Ben sauntered past the buffet on his way towards where the group was gathering to begin the tour of the museum. The buffet was more of an art piece itself that designed for anyone here to break bread. He filled a plate that might last him as long as the tour would drone on. Most displays were sweet bitesize collections or twisted pastry stacks. Ben grabbed a handful in addition to the plate in his hand and turned towards the corridor where someone was calling that the optional tour was about to start. 

The room darkened suddenly and a tension in the back of Ben’s mind told him he was seeing something that no-one else in the room could. A chill brought goosebumps up across his skin as the vision began to sharpen to show an artifact on a pedestal as a blood splatter was showered across it. With so many pieces of history in the building he’d almost expected this, a vision from the past that resonated so strongly in the Force. He should have been more surprised that the very walls of the building didn’t resonate something similar with the amount of blood spilled in the streets outside. 

A flash of copper-red appeared and vanished so quickly he flinched and he was torn away from the vision and back to the ballroom. His eyes landed first on a man across the room whom Ben suspected may have witnessed the effects of his Force vision. The man’s mask covered almost as much of his identity as Ben’s did, though his uniform denoted a rank in the former First Order. 

Ben turned away into the crowd and circled towards where the tour was due to start. With any luck only one inconsequential stranger has noticed anything out of the ordinary, if not he was sure that his mother would soon be ushering him out of the gala amid a myriad of prepared excuses. 

“Ladies and gentlemen, might I suggest we begin,” The host called out as Ben approached. “I suspect and stragglers will soon catch up should they be interested,” Ben picked at his food and glanced around the darkened hallways and the head of the group began to lead them around. Each exhibit was individually lit and, according to the guide, each acted as a beacon lighting up a story to the past. 

Ben knew the history of a number if the pieces that had been donated from his mother’s collection and began to bite the inside of his cheek when the tour guide both butchered the recent history of Force users and the Organa, Naberrie and Skywalker family history. When he could bear no more he picked his moment and sidestepped into one of the adjoining corridors. 

There he waited for the group to move on and finally he was stood in silence. The noise of the ball was too far off for the guests thoughts to be more than white noise. Ben removed his mask with one hand and began to peruse the displays. 

He stood in front of the display table of First Order correspondence dating back to the very beginning of their movement. If he concentrated he could feel the emotion of the owners: Full of resentment, righteousness, and rage. 

A wave of emotion drew him back to the present, pleasure that Ben initially presumed was a couple who’d escaped the crowds to share some private hasty fondling. He was about to push it down and away from his perceptions when he caught the sense of the emotion’s source, closer than he expected. The pleasure wasn’t sexual it was pride and tinged with greed and resolute ambition. 

Ben traced it’s direction and ventured further down the corridor. He hesitated at the corner of another corridor when he heard footsteps. He caught sight of a shadow against the opposite wall but with the only light coming from the artifact’s display cabinets that was not particularly helpful in revealing this person’s identity. 

Ben listened to the steps on the marble floor and then when he determined their owner was across the room he drew on the Force to disguise his presence. He stepped into the room and Ben’s gaze fell on a canvas bag that lay against the display case. He could sense that there was someone else in the room he just couldn’t see them. 

He began to circle the room when someone lurched out towards him from the darkest shadows. Ben twisted out of their path and threw out a hand to push them away with the Force. As he did so a sharp pain cut through the palm of his hand and as he pulled away his blood splattered against one of the displays. The artifact from his earlier vision and the man who had been watching him. The suit should have given it away. 

Ben scrambled back out of the range of his attacker as they did the same. His eyes darted from the blood splattered artefact to his wary attacker. It hadn’t been a past vision but a future vision he should have taken heed of. It was certainly a less violent than usually resonated in the Force.

“The security system is disabled across the building,” The man said, “You can take whatever interests you and if you’re smart you’ll get away with it.” Ben pried into the man’s thoughts as he held his ground. He wasn’t scared, his ambition was too resolute for that. He was thinking of how to slit Ben’s throat with the knife from his sleeve before it ever came to Ben being in a position to identify him.

“You’re trying to undermine the peace treaty,” Ben said by way of distraction. The items hastily stuffed into the man’s canvas bag were evidence enough of that. First Order memorabilia of the most recent generals. Medals and commendations. 

“It was undermined by its own creation,” The man said with a sneer, “The best you can be is foolish to think that such an agreement could be sustainable. There’ll be poison in the punch before the night is over,” He flicked his overhanging copper-red hair out of his face and Ben took in the man’s full appearance. 

His hair was outstanding, the colour of fire that seemed mirrored in Ben’s impression of the man through the Force. A desire for power over all those around him and a ruthlessness to calculate whatever would be needed to reach it. In the Force he shone out like none Ben had met before. Ben took in the man’s appearance and scanned his mind again and liked what he saw more so the second time when he saw an intrigue in himself in return.

“You were telling the truth when you said we could take anything right now,” Ben said.

“I didn’t suggest _we_ would be doing anything,” The man snapped.

“But we could,” Ben said and took a step towards the other man, “I’m in the unique position to know that you would like to fight me,” Ben stared down the other man and searched the very edge of the other man’s mind to pull out images to the forefront, “That you would like to do a lot to me. With me,”

“You want a lot too?” The man levelled his with a calculating gaze as he stooped to snatch up his sack.

“Escape mostly. Have you got a ship nearby?” Ben asked and with a Force push he urged the man to act. 

“Wouldn’t be much of a quick escape if I hadn’t,” The man said with a smirk and a shrug, “I’d like to know how you’re convincing me to do this,”

“In ways you’d hate, Hux.” Ben said as he pulled the man’s name from his thoughts. Ben smiled as they circumvented the noise of the main ballroom. Hux’s mind was almost certainly the most interesting he’d found in years, and for the next few hours at least he could explore the man’s mind and motivations. 

They exited via a propped open back door and then Hux turned on him, shoving him back into the wall of the building. Ben was pinned and felt a blaster pressed against his gut. 

“I know you’re a Force user, and I know how to withstand your mind tricks well enough,” Hux said, his voice low and threatening.

“So shoot me,” Ben said as Hux pressed the blaster into him harder still.

“Don’t think I won’t be getting something from you as well,” Hux said, “I may not have your tricks but I’ll soon take exactly what I want from you,” Hux said and quickly pulled away and turned his back, “Keep up Organa. You won’t be slowing me down,” 


End file.
